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Middleman who funneled bribes to Dallas school bus agency officials in corruption scandal gets prison time

Slater Swartwood Sr. is the latest person to be sentenced to federal prison for a $70 million public corruption scandal that bankrupted and destroyed Dallas County Schools, a public agency that operated school buses.

Cameras mounted on the sides of buses were intended to increase safety by discouraging drivers from passing stopped buses, but Dallas County Schools' dealings with Force Multiplier Solutions brought the bus-service provider to the brink of financial ruin and led to a bribery scandal involving DCS and Dallas city officials. Voters abolished the agency in 2017.

When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Louisiana coast, Slater Washburn Swartwood Sr. and his family found themselves among the multitudes whose lives fell into emotional and financial turmoil.

Swartwood, born into a family of lawyers and judges, said he turned to an old friend for help. Bob Leonard, 71, needed someone to handle real estate matters and agreed to hire the desperate Swartwood.

But prosecutors say the Louisiana businessman had a more urgent task in mind for Swartwood: to funnel nearly $3 million in bribe payments to Dallas public officials in exchange for a lucrative school bus contract. Swartwood, 76, wired the money using his various companies as a pass-through, his court records say.

Swartwood agreed to cooperate when FBI agents paid him a visit. He wore a camera to ensnare his co-conspirators and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. For that, U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn on Tuesday sentenced Swartwood to 18 months in prison.

In an interview with KXAS-TV (NBC5) prior to his arrest, Dwaine Caraway said the money he received from Slater Swartwood "probably doesn't look too good.'' (NBC5 / KXAS-TV)

He could have received up to five years for his role in the massive bribery scheme that led to multiple public corruption arrests and the demise of Dallas County Schools, a public agency that provided bus service to Dallas ISD and several other school districts.

But Swartwood was a relatively minor player in the $70 million corruption scheme who stumbled naively into it during his retirement years, according to his family and attorney.

His family members and attorney told Lynn that Swartwood previously led a successful and productive life and did not profit from the bribery scam. They said his cognitive and physical decline late in life made him particularly vulnerable to his old friend's scheming.

During the hearing, Lynn agreed somewhat with that characterization, referring to him as a "bag man" and a "patsy."

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Swartwood, a short man with silver hair and horn-rimmed glasses, had difficulty hearing the judge. He read a written statement slowly and at times haltingly in which he apologized for his actions.

After the hearing, he appeared upbeat and even jovial as he circulated around the courtroom shaking hands and hugging relatives. Lynn gave him until Aug. 13 to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence.

Robert Leonard (left), CEO of Force Multiplier Solutions, and Larry Duncan, former president of the board of trustees for the Dallas County Schools bus agency, are shown at a social gathering.

She called his involvement in the "sordid" events "inexplicable," saying he tarnished a "lifetime of good works."

"It's a great mystery to me," Lynn said after Swartwood's wife, brother and granddaughter told her about his life prior to the case. "It's just shameful behavior."

Lynn sentenced Caraway earlier this year to 56 months, or almost five years, in prison for his role in the scandal. Leonard got seven years in prison. Sorrells is scheduled to be sentenced next month for conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.

Larry Duncan, the former board president of Dallas' now-defunct school bus agency, was sentenced in April to six months of home confinement for cheating on his taxes by not reporting income from a vendor.

New job

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Swartwood first began working for Leonard as a real estate adviser in 1985, according to court records.

Five years after the hurricane, in 2010, he went back to work for his old friend, as a consultant. At the time, Swartwood was "dead broke" and his marriage was in ruin, said his attorney, Max Stern.

Leonard had won lucrative contracts to put security cameras on school buses in Dallas County. He would later admit to paying local officials more than $3.5 million to secure the contracts for his company, Force Multiplier Solutions.

Slater Swartwood(NBC5 / KXAS-TV)

Between 2011 and 2016, Leonard gave Swartwood about $2 million to funnel to Sorrells through Swartwood's companies, including Elf Investments and Anrock Realty Services, court records show.

Swartwood would then send the money to a bank account for a shell company owned by Sorrells, according to court records.

Stern said his client was acting at the direction of a longtime friend and associate. His only benefit was his employment agreement with Leonard, he said.

Stern said Swartwood was trusting and loyal "to a fault" and that he rationalized his behavior, telling himself the financial transactions were no concern of his, Stern said.

"It's magical thinking to be sure," Stern said.

Stern told Lynn that Swartwood has numerous medical aliments, some serious, which make it difficult to know how much time he has left. Stern asked the judge for one year and one day in prison.

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'Almost childlike'

Charles Swartwood, a retired federal judge from Massachusetts, told Lynn that his brother was born to an alcoholic mother and that he struggled academically due to a learning disorder. He blamed his brother's predicament on a "misguided obsession to help a pal."

Catherine Swartwood, who has battled breast cancer, told Lynn her husband of 55 years is naive and trusting and needed the money.

"Slater needed to find work," she said.

She said that he is "almost childlike" and that she worries about how he will do in prison.

Lynn said Swartwood got the benefit of a generous recommendation from government prosecutors. She rejected the defense's request for 12 months, saying Swartwood was involved in a serious crime.

Kevin Krause. Kevin has worked for The Dallas Morning News since 2003, and he has covered federal criminal courts for the past six years. Kevin has been a journalist for 26 years Kevin is a multiple recipient of the Stephen Philbin Award for excellence in legal reporting. Kevin earned a BA from Boston University.